Store-service apparatus



(No Model.)

' M. CLARK & J. T. COWLEY.

STORE SERVICE APPARATUS.

,087. Patented Feb. 10, 1885.

NITED STATES PATENT Erica.

MILTON CLARK, OF NEWV YORK, N. Y., AND JAMES T. CO\VLEY, OF BALTI- MORE, MARYLAND.

STORE-S ERVICE APPARATUS.

$PECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 312,087, dated February 1O 1885.

Arplication filed January 10, 1895. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, MILToN CLARK, of New York, in the countyof New York and State of New York, and JAMES T. COWLEY, of Balti- 5 more, in the county of Baltimore and State of Maryland, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Store Service Apparatus, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing,

forming a part hereof.

Many varieties of store-service apparatus are described in patents and printed publications, and also many varieties of apparatus for receiving the ball, car, or other conveyer r 5 from a track, and many varieties of apparatus for restoring the ball, car, or other couveyer to a track. Moreover, a single apparatus is described in sundry patents which performs both functions of receiver and restorer;

but so far as we are aware we are the first to arrange any form of track with any form of apparatus which receives the car from a track and restores it to the same track from which it received it, and it is this novel arrangement which constitutes our invention.

To make ourinvention clearer we will briefly describe three forms of apparatus which we disclaim; first, a movable track in line with a main track, so that the conveyer can be lowered below the maintraclgas described in sundry patents; secondly, a movable track upon which the conveyer is placed by hand in order that it may be raised and placed upon a track, as described in Patents Nos. 278,226, and

3 5 291,280, and several others; thirdly, a movable track upon which the conveyer is received from one section of track, and by which the conveyer is restored to another section of track, as described in Patents Nos. 274,000 and 0 239,495. Our invention, then, is limited to the difference between our improved apparatus and the three forms of apparatus which we disclaim, and that difference is the arrangement of the track and apparatus which shall 5 receive the conveyer from the track, as in the first class above diselaimed, and in addition shall restore the conveyer to the same section of track from which it was received, this latter being Wholly new with us,so far as we have any knowledge or information, and constituting a system radically different from any other known to us, in that the conveyer passes from the track to the apparatus and back again from the apparatus to the same track.

In the drawing we have shown the best form of our invention known to us, the figure being an elevation.

A represents a track, and B the receiving and restoring apparatus, of any suitable construction; for our invention does not relate to the form of track nor to the form of receiving and restoring apparatus, but simply to the novel arrangement of a track-conveyer and such apparatus as above explained.

The construction shown in the drawings is 6 fully described in other applications for Letters Patent now pending, and therefore is not claimed herein, this application being for the novel system of receiving the conveyer from and returning it to the same section of track, as distinguished from receiving it from one section of track and returning it to another section of track, and the other pending applications being for sundry systems of which our novel system forms the basis. The conveyer 7 5 Cpasses from track A onto the cord or movable track B, and is there arrested, and in most cases lowered, as shown in full lines, to bring it in convenient reach of the clerk or cashier. The cord B is then brought to the position shown in dotted lines, and the conveyer 0 thereby restored to the track A.

The conveyer C may be of any suitable construction, and be propelled over track A in any usual way, our present invention not re- 8 5 lating to these matters. In most cases the track A will in practice be the main track, but it may be a siding or switch track.

Vhile we prefer to use cord B,it will be obvious that a rigid movable track will be better for certain kinds of conveyers, and that a flexible tube should be used when the conveyer is a ball, the essential'point being that the apparatus must receive the conveyer, whatever be its form, from the track A, and lower it somewhat, and afterward return it to tbetrack A. In most cases it is desirable to give considerable impetus to the conveyer when it is returned to track A, and this is readily done, as will be clear from the drawings without :00 further description, the degree of impetus imparted depending mainly upon the length and inclination of the movable track B when in In combination, the track, the conveyer,and position for use as a restorer; but when the I the apparatus by which the conveyor is both conveyer is moved by a motor which forms a received from and restored to the track, all 15 part of it, or by power otherwise applied to it, arranged and operating as set forth.

5 then there will be no need of giving any im- In testimony that we claim the foregoing as petus. our own we affix our signatures in presence of The chief advantage of the flexible track 13 two witnesses. over any other form of movable track is that MILTON CLARK. it arrests the conveyor without shock,whereas J AS. '1. COWLEY. 10 if a rigid movable track be used some form of WVitnesses:

bu'ffer will be required in practice. THos. K-ELL BRADFORD,

\Vhat we claim as our invention is HARRIS J. GHELTON. 

